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      Watching expenses with prepaid credit cards

      March 21, 2010 /

      If you have a small business, the thought of giving some of your employees a credit card for expenses can be terrifying. Sure, they may be trustworthy, but it becomes something you have to monitor, and sometimes the problem can get out of hand and you don’t catch it for months.

      One solution would be to use prepaid credit cards for your employees. This way, you don’t have to worry about them exceeding the limit on the card, and it forces you to monitor the situation and pay attention to expenses.

      In this economy, you need to use every tool at your disposal to monitor costs. Having your employees fill out reports isn’t enough, as you’re often too busy to look over them closely. With this system you can minimize mistakes.

      Your Business, Your Team

      Lessons from the king-sized success (and failures) of Donald Trump

      March 18, 2010 /

      People who want to learn about success often forget that many of these lessons are also about how to face gigantic problems and solve them. As Oscar Wilde famously said “Who are afraid to fail are afraid to succeed.” There is no better person to learn from than Donald Trump.

      As a kid, Trump was obsessed with baseball to the exclusion of almost everything else so his parents had to send him to the New York Military Academy to sort him out. It worked and Trump pulled up his socks, graduating from one of the best business schools in the country, the Wharton School of business at the University of Pennsylvania. After an apprenticeship with his father, a successful real estate developer, Trump was ready to take off on his own. Trump has always thought big and told Millionaire Magazine “Always do something that you like, always do something that you enjoy doing, or you will never be successful. You will never be good at it,” However, it is Trump’s success in overcoming his gigantic problems that make him truly unique.

      Trump made a multibillion dollar fortune only to see most of it wiped out in the real estate market crash. He was staring down the brink of the precipice with total debts of over $9.2 billion. His superlative negotiating skills and his astute business moves enabled him to recover. In his own words: “It’s always a great asset to be able to get along with people.” Over the years, despite some very tricky deals, I’ve generally been able to get along with people. You always have to let the other side think that they are also getting something out of the transaction. And, it’s often true that the best deals are the ones that everybody benefits from.”

      Trump would be a winner anywhere, but he happened to choose the real estate business. He was also a master at using debt and keeping his options open. Certainly, one lesson you can learn from him on using debt is to investigate the use of elastic loans.

      Your Career, Your Compensation

      Keep your credit standing high

      March 18, 2010 /

      A credit standing has many advantages. In the first place, you will gain access to a whole range of sources of affordable debt who will welcome you as a customer. In the second place, you will be able to obtain the best possible terms and interest rates in the market because of your credit history. Finally, your credit score says much about you as a person so whether you are dealing with a landlord with a potential employer, your credit history will speak for you.

      In the last few years of profligate lending, the easy availability of credit seduced many people into borrowing far more than they could afford to repay. For many of these people, debt consolidation is now being touted as a magic wand to waft all the problems away. Nothing could be further from the truth. Debt consolidation is a platform on which to reorganize your personal debt on a one time basis, but it cannot be a long-term fix, unless you are prepared to rein in the sort of spending that led to your problems.

      If you would like to take control of your life, a debt consolidation is a good way to look at your personal debt and to reorganize it. If you are like the average American, the chances are that you will have debt outstanding on several credit cards and possibly some personal loans. All of these are high-cost debt because they carry a high interest rate. You should aim at obtaining one single debt consolidation loan to pay off all these bits and pieces and to provide you with a single monthly repayment. If you are in a position to use your home equity as collateral, you should be able to obtain this loan on favorable terms and conditions thus potentially saving you thousands of dollars in interest.

      Finally, having regained control of your life, aim to keep it that way, and a lifelong high credit standing will follow.

      Your Career

      HP EliteBook 2740p Touch-Enabled Convertible Tablet

      March 18, 2010 /

      HP has unveiled its first multi-touch tablet for business users with the HP EliteBook 2740 p. The laptop, which is convertible into a tablet, weighs only 3.8 pounds and has two optional displays. You can either choose a 12.1 inch diagonal 1280×800 LED display or an outdoor view display for use in natural light with low reflection and high contrast.

      HP’s tablet is equipped with an Intel Core i7 or i5 processor and optional vPro management technology. It also offers Intel HD integrated graphics, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, up to 320GB of hard drive space or up to 160GB of solid state drive storage, and an external DVD burner as an option.

      The 2740p also incorporates a 2MP web camera, microphone, stereo speakers, a keyboard that is resistant to spills, two pointing devices (touchpad and pointstick), 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, the optional HP un2420 EV-DO/HSPA mobile broadband module, Ethernet LAN, a 56k modem, three USB ports, ExpressCard and Secure Digital slots, Firewire and a VGA port.

      HP confirms that the EliteBook meets the military standards for (MIL-STD 810G) vibration, dust, humidity, altitude and temperatures. The optional HP 2740 Ultra-Slim Expansion Base can be used as a dock for the notebook to connect with peripherals without needing to plug and unplug. This expansion base includes a DVD+/-RW drive, and an eSATA port, allowing for connection to an external RAID array, HDD and optical drives.

      Since battery life is important for business users, you can opt for a six cell Li-ion prismatic battery with a battery life of five hours. You can combine this battery with a HP 2700 Ultra-Slim Battery and the total battery life will increase to 11 hours.

      HP EliteBook 2740p, which runs on Windows 7.0, should be available in the US next month at a starting price of $1599.

      Your Business

      For-profit college scams

      March 13, 2010 /

      You need to read this article from The New York Times if you’re considering going to a trade school or for-profit college.

      One fast-growing American industry has become a conspicuous beneficiary of the recession: for-profit colleges and trade schools.

      At institutions that train students for careers in areas like health care, computers and food service, enrollments are soaring as people anxious about weak job prospects borrow aggressively to pay tuition exceeding $30,000 a year.

      But the profits have come at substantial taxpayer expense while often delivering dubious benefits to students, according to academics and advocates for greater oversight of financial aid. Critics say many schools exaggerate the value of their degree programs, selling young people on dreams of middle-class wages while setting them up for default on untenable debts, low-wage work and a struggle to avoid poverty. And the schools are harvesting growing federal student aid dollars, including Pell grants awarded to low-income students.

      The article goes on to quote a woman who left her job with one of these schools as she became concerned with deceptive recruiting tactics.

      It’s stunning to me that these schools are charging $20,000 to $30,000 per year. Unfortunately, it’s another example of good intentions gone bad and the fact that Congress is bought and sold every day. We want to help kids and adults pay for school to improve themselves and find a career, but with all that money comes a new industry that preys on people looking for a new option in life.

      Be careful so you don’t end up in a situation where you’re loaded up with debt that you can’t pay back.

      One option we should consider is limiting financial aid from the government to public colleges, non-profit schools and accredited private schools.

      Your Education

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